We always act on some mixture of facts and beliefs. It's just a question of how rich the mixture is with facts.

Life being the way it is, though, there is probably no issue that doesn't involve some element of belief because just thinking that we have all of the facts in a given case is itself a belief that is a part of the fact-belief mixture.

But as convoluted as the issue can become, there are commonsense rules to apply -- a prime one being that the more fundamental the…

Theism as constraint on humans murdering other humans stands refuted. You could of course add the proviso that the deity in question is a "good" deity, but here is the paradox. Who defines what is good? If you are a theist, god defines what is good. The followers of Huitzilopochtli were following the good according to their deity. Who are we to judge them if we say that theism is the best grounding for objective morals? But if you don't believe all religions… Continue

Foreigners are not particularly impressed with most Americans' mental abilities and with good reason in some cases. For instance, nearly 25% of the American people believe President Bush knew about the 9/11 attacks in advance, but even worse 30% of Americans did not know when 9/11 …

Please note this is an unedited first draft. it's really the only way i can get posts up. otherwise i start re-reading, re-writing, editing, and i never finish it and nothing gets put up. even if no one reads it, i need an online home for these ideas; i feel like they need to be shared, even in their roughest of stages. like my other blog posts, this will be edited, re-written, and…

Whether you used to believe in Jesus or Yahweh, Mohammed or Allah, Krishna or Zeus, I can assure you that none exist. I will even take you further than that and guarantee they do not exist. It is all about your perception of the concept that a god/goddess is. Not a…

I was bought up with religion and had to attend Sunday school and church which is the most boring thing any one can do. I guess I am a realist and fiction is not my thing. I just take life as it comes, death is inevitable and the natural conclusion. Nothing is immortal all though primitive minds still think there is a way .

I am often quite literally surrounded by people who seem to exist in an entirely different universe than myself. They don't think about anything the same way I do. All their opinions are rooted in xtian dogma or fox news, or both. They spend most of their time encouraging and propping each other's bullshit up. Or bashing on all the various groups that they hate (but they don't hate anybody, right?). Sometimes I wonder if I will ever need a procedure to surgically un-roll my…

I have read many articles and books by the same title, "Why I am not a Christian." I thought it may be appropriate to express my own personal view on the subject.

My thoughts on this come from two directions. The first is my inability to believe in the Christian doctrine due to the total lack of evidence to support it, which is dwarfed by the massive amount of evidence that refutes it. The second is my understanding that even if Christianity were… Continue

Philosophical Atheism Before you go back and preach to your friends and saying I am an angry atheist. Think about it for a second. Many atheists like myself are not angry at God (because he probably does not exist), but [we are angry] at people like yourself for constantly shoving something down our throats that is without proper foundations, without the proper evidence. Many of us are very well educated and have looked into your…

For as long as i can remember i've had an insanely close relationship with music. it may sound a bit weird or corny to put it that way, but it's the best wey i know to describe it. different types of music, different bands or styles or whatever, even before i knew anything about that stuff, would elicit different emotional responses from me. when i was a kid, it was usually happiness or excitement.. i…

Pennsylvania 'Craigslist killer' says she slayed dozens more across U.S. as part of satanic cult: report

My point is the failure of the educational system is leading to horror and chaos. Miranda Barbour was 19 years old when she and she husband committed this horrific “thrill murder.” At 19, she should have been studying science, history, comparative religion and literature. An educated mind would dismiss “Satanic cult”…

Giving praise to God for saving a person’s life is one of the most irrational responses to recovery by a seriously ill or injured patient. Not only is it irrational, it is surely insulting and blasphemous to an all-knowing and all-powerful god. The idea that a person can petition God to perform special favors denies that God knows of his children’s needs and by default indicts him for failure to respond to the incantations and the prayers of his…

The trip to Capernum had become disastrous. Looking over his shoulder beyond the massive crowd of would be students and desperately ill citizens who had traveled many miles to just touch Jesus’ robes, Judas saw a small detachment of town guards waiting for them. These…

The scientific method has been vastly more successful at telling us what's real than the methods of religions. The reason being that imagining how the universe should be, or armchair philosophy, is no substitute for going out and taking a look at how the world is. There are a billion things I can conceive of in my imagination, but I have no reason to suppose that all or any of those things is real.

The point is that if science doesn't have any hope of ever answering a given question… Continue

It will be in the 90's today and will soon be up to 120 degrees here in phoenix.......the homeless will be out in the streets suffering from major dehydration and some will even die from this kind of heat, just as in the winter they will suffer in the cold.......I for the most part don't give a crap why they are there but some might think they are all bums and such.......not all. there are children,families and the mentally ill who could use a cold water or a blanket.... .....please continue…

While in college, I read "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina", by Leo Tolstoy. I was absorbed by the stories and writing. Of course, they are considered classics.
50 years later, I just finished "Tolstoy", a biography by Henri Troyat, written in 1965. I really knew very little about the great Russian author, but considered him a hero of mine, solely because of the two books I read.
For many chapters chronolizing his early life, I was impressed by his love of nature, thirst for… Continue

As PZ Myers mentions, Young Earth Creationists absolutely hate being reminded that their World-View is only Seventh Day Adventist propaganda, which originated from their leader's brain damage Hallucinations.